The purchase of even a modest property like a small house costing RM100,000 requires separate lawyers working on behalf of the seller and buyer, each striving to get the best deal for their own clients.

However, this was not the case with the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), as documents procured by malaysiakini indicate.

Those parties who were supposed to have acted either in the best interests of the buyer of PKFZ -Port Klang Authority (PKA) - or that of its seller and developer Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) - were, in fact, one and the same.

Consider, for example, the legal firm which had drafted the March 2004 land development agreement between PKA and Kuala Dimensi.

A pertinent question to be asked is how PKFZ - whose price tag has skyrocketed from RM2.32 billion in 2003 to the current RM4.63 billion - could be expected to come up with the best deal in the public interest when the lawyer engaged to draft the agreement works for 'the other side.'

On legal panel

PKA could have chosen for the task of drafting the agreement lawyers that would best represent PKA's interests (and, thereby, tax-payers' interests) by ensuring these interests are enshrined.

PKA, however, chose to appoint Rashid Asari & Co, the firm that was, and remains today, on Kuala Dimensi's legal panel.

Abdul Rashid Asari who heads the firm did not answer calls by malaysiakini to his mobile.

However, an officer of Wijaya Baru Global Bhd (WBGB) - the property developer and investment firm behind the sale and development of PKFZ - made the corroboration when contacted today.

Rashid also happens to be the vice-chief of the Kapar Umno division.

Among Rashid's fellow excos in the Kapar division is its permanent chairman Onn Ismail, who formerly headed the Pulau Lumut Development Cooperative Bhd (PLDCB).

PLDCB had, in the 1990s, sold the 1000 acres of land on which PKFZ now sits to Kuala Dimensi.

Present PLDCB chairperson Abdul Rahman Palil, who is a Selangor executive councillor and Sementa state assembly person, is the Kapar division head. Onn's son-in-law, Faizal Abdullah is the division's youth chief.

Faizal also happens to be the deputy-chief executive officer of WBGB

Other documents, meanwhile, suggest the conflict of interests issue (which malaysiakini had earlier raised in relation to PKA chairperson Chor Chee Heung who is also WBGB director) goes even deeper.

In order to monitor the development of PKFZ - as well as to be the final arbiter between PKA and Kuala Dimensi in the event of disputes over development 'cost variations' - an independent quantity surveyor (IQS) was to have been appointed by the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Records of the official correspondence that occurred on the matter, however, indicate that the exercise of appointing an 'independent' quantity surveyor was perhaps less than genuine.

Appeal to finance minister

On Nov 3, 2003, PKA's general manager OC Phang had written to the MOF's procurement management division recommending that one Damansara-based Syarikat Perunding BE Sdn Bhd be appointed the project's IQS.

What was not mentioned - but attested to in an earlier letter dated Dec 10, 2002, to Phang from Kuala Dimensi - was that this same company had been under WBGB's employ as a development consultant for the PKFZ.

The intrigue goes deeper when, following the MOF's rejection of her recommendation, she went on to press Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy in a letter dated Apr 7, 2004.

She requested Chan to lobby Finance Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in order to appoint Syarikat Perunding BE as the IQS.

"In view of this project's importance, this project needs to be expedited. We respectfully request your help in appealing to the Finance Minister so that Syarikat Perunding BE is appointed as IQS for the development project on Pulau Indah," said Phang in her letter.

"To facilitate the proper action, a copy of a draft letter to the Finance Minister is herewith attached," reads the letter, which dutifully includes the draft letter, minus Chan's signature, to Abdullah.

When contacted, a Syarikat Perunding BE official confirmed it is still engaged as the IQS for PKFZ.

Phang, who has previously declined to entertain questions from malaysiakini , did not answer calls to her mobile phone.

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